Americans For Truth is featured in this follow-up by Christian News Network to their original piece on Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren’s comments about homosexuality. The following are excerpts from the article:

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Rick Warren Expresses Regret Over Making Video Supporting Biblical Marriage; Family Group Concerned

December 4, 2012 | Christian News Network

By Heather Clark

A pro-family group is calling into question recent statements made by Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, surrounding his regret over creating a video in 2008 that expressed his support for Biblical marriage.

During a recent interview with Marc Lamont Hill of the Huffington Post, Warren sought to clarify matters pertaining to his creation of a video years ago in which he stated that those who follow the Bible should support California’s Proposition 8 ballot initiative. He had been accused of lying months after releasing the video for stating during an interview on Larry King Live that “[d]uring the whole Proposition 8 thing, I … never once issued a statement, never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going.”

“People say that I campaigned for Proposition 8. The meaning of the word ‘campaign’ means two different things,” Warren told Hill. “To me, that means that you go out and you speak at rallies, you do advertisements for it and stuff like that.”

“I never made a single statement on Prop. 8 until the week before, and in my own church, some members said, ‘Where do we stand on this?’” he explained. “[So], I released a video to my members. It was posted all over like it was an advertisement.”

…

Following Warren’s explanation, some are expressing concern, including Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. LaBarbera told Christian News Network that Warren’s comments made him appear as if he was ashamed to publicly stand for the Biblical definition of marriage.

“[Warren] regrets that the statement got out wider than his church. To me, that’s incredible because he should be happy that he had influence outside of his church to the whole body of Christ in California — indeed, to people all over the state voting on the issue who look to him for guidance,” he said. “And so, that troubles me that he even says now that he wouldn’t make that video. … That’s saying that he does not want to be a leader on the homosexual ‘marriage’ issue.”

“Homophobia” is routinely used to describe opposition to homosexuality and the “gay” movement.

Needless to say, we at AFTAH are pleased that the Associated Press has dispensed with the use of the pejorative term “homophobia” in its official and influential Style Book. “Homophobia” is usually employed by pro-“gay” advocates to denigrate sincere and well-meaning opponents of homosexuality as irrational bigots.

Predictably, homosexual activists like John Aravosis — the very types who routinely smear pro-family advocates like this writer (and organizations like the Boy Scouts) as “homophobes” — are disappointed with AP’s decision.

We at Americans For Truth, like our peers in the pro-family, conservative movement who stand in principled and faith-based opposition to the LGBT political and cultural agenda, do not “fear” homosexuals. We simply disagree profoundly with the normalization of homosexual behavior and the elevation of homosexuality and “gay” identity to “civil rights” status.

Of course, there are people who do fear homosexuals, but there are also people who fear conservative Christians. So isn’t it odd that “homophobia” (and “Islamophobia”) became mainstreamed in America’s media-driven lexicon, while “Christian-phobia” did not? (And now transgender activists, piggybacking off the semantic success of their homosexual allies, are pushing the equally dubious “transphobia” to advance their agenda.)

You could easily fill ten large books with examples of abuses of the tendentious term “homophobia” and its derivative, “homophobe,” in the same-sex debate. Advocates of homosexuality and foes of biblical sexual morality would never allow themselves to be categorized and caricatured as “phobes” — our friend John Biver posits the Secular Left as “morality-phobia” HERE — yet they pretend that somehow “homophobia” objectively describes opposition to homosexuality. That’s because to far too many homosexual advocates, the end justifies the means, and the “gay” cause advances when its critics are cynically and falsely cast as hateful and fearful creeps.

We will have more on this story. For now, it is gratifying to see AP make a move toward neutrality, objectivity and fairness in its coverage of homosexuality. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Politico reports (emphasis added):

AP Nixes ‘Homophobia,’ ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

By Dylan Byers, 11/26/12

The Associated Press has nixed “homophobia,” “ethnic cleansing,” and a number of other terms from its Style Book in recent months.

The online Style Book now says that “-phobia,” “an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness” should not be used “in political or social contexts,” including “homophobia” and “Islamophobia.” It also calls “ethnic cleansing” a “euphemism,” and says the AP “does not use ‘ethnic cleansing’ on its own. It must be enclosed in quotes, attributed and explained.”

“Ethnic cleansing is a euphemism for pretty violent activities, a phobia is a psychiatric or medical term for a severe mental disorder. Those terms have been used quite a bit in the past, and we don’t feel that’s quite accurate,” AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn told POLITICO.

“When you break down ‘ethnic cleansing,’ it’s a cover for terrible violent activities. It’s a term we certainly don’t want to propagate,”Minthorn continued. “Homophobia especially — it’s just off the mark. It’s ascribing a mental disability to someone, and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have. It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more neutral: anti-gay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was the case.”

“We want to be precise and accurate and neutral in our phrasing,” he said.

The changes made to the online Style Book will appear in next year’s printed edition.

Sounds alarm over criminalization of ‘gay’ change counseling

This column was first published by WND.com two days ago

By Matt Barber

In recent months, “progressive” lawmakers, activist attorneys and militant homosexual pressure groups have launched a fierce campaign to ban therapeutic help for child victims of monsters like homosexual pedophile Jerry Sandusky. California has already passed such a law (SB 1172).

On Friday, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver challenged this twisted ban in federal court, seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the law from taking effect on Jan. 1. Judge Kimberly Mueller will likely issue a decision within a week or so.

SB 1172 would make illegal any counseling to diminish or eliminate same-sex sexual attractions or high-risk behaviors, even when, as is often the case, those attractions and behaviors derive from sexual abuse.

Thousands of people, many of whom once identified as “gay,” have received positive, life-changing benefits from such counseling. Yet, among other things, the fact that people can, and do, leave homosexuality bulldozes the politically motivated, scientifically discredited “born that way” meme.

Here is the latest manifestation of America’s descent into decadence and godlessness. What right do West Point and all the military academies have to teach young men and women integrity and right from wrong when they now are celebrating sexual immorality on such a grand scale? And yet Rep. Paul Ryan (echoing his pro-“gay” Republican running mate, Mitt Romney) said it would be a big mistake for the GOP to revisit the homosexuals-in-the-military issue (i.e., reinstate a homosexual exclusion policy).

Are we heading toward a bipartisan push in favor of Big Homosexuality — for which the revolutionary redefinition of marriage is but one goal? And where does that leave Christians and all moral-minded citizens who put loyalty to their Creator and sexual sanity above party politics? We’ve heard a lot about the “Fiscal Cliff,” but America is also dangling off the Moral Cliff. Too bad few governing and cultural elites seem to care enough to try and rescue us from going over it. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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FoxNews reports:

First same-sex marriage being celebrated Saturday at West Point’s Cadet Chapel

Published December 01, 2012, FoxNews.com

The first same-sex marriage at West Point’s Cadet Chapel will be celebrated Saturday – when a military veteran and her partner exchange vows roughly one year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving in the military.

The ceremony will take place in the Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel between Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Dara Gnesin. Fulton is a military veteran and spokeswoman for Outserve – an advocacy group for actively serving gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel, reported first by USA Today.

West Point hosted its first same-sex marriage last weekend, but it was a private ceremony at a smaller campus venue.

The following is excerpted from from an article in Christian News Network, in which AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera is quoted. The original article contains video footage of the controversial Rick Warren interview with Huffington Post [or click HERE]:

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Rick Warren Uncertain if Homosexual Behavior is Sinful, Says ‘Gays’ Go to Heaven

November 29, 2012 By Heather Clark, Christian News Network

Controversy is stirring over recent comments made by Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life and megachurch leader of Saddleback Church in California, who stated that homosexual behavior “might be” sinful, and that he believes homosexuals go to Heaven.

During an interview this week with the Huffington Post, Warren was asked by Marc Lamont Hill if having romantic feelings for a member of the same sex is a sin. Leading up to the question, Warren was explaining that he does not hate homosexuals, and that people should disagree politely on the subject of homosexuality.

“I have many, many gay friends, and have worked around the world with them in gay organizations to try to stop AIDS,” he said. “We’re doing ‘World AIDS Day’ this weekend at Saddleback Church. My wife and I have given millions of dollars to help people with HIV/AIDS and have worked with gay organizations on that.”

“What about the love part, though? I hear about the AIDS part,” asked Hill. “It’s not illegal to love somebody,” Warren replied.

“But you think it’s a sin,” Hill asserted. “No, it’s not a sin to love somebody,” Warren said.

“It might be a sin to have sex with them,” he added. “It might be.”

Courtesy of our good friends at PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays):

My Testimony

by Debora Barr

Radical transformation is possible! I lived 18 years of my life as a lesbian with absolutely no desire to change. Now that I have been set free from my invisible shackles, I am experiencing the most wholesome and unconditional love of my Savior, Jesus Christ and will never turn back!

I was born in 1963, to a 19-year-old mother and a twenty-one year old father who lost their first child (my older brother) to complications during child birth less than a year earlier. My parents both came from homes where their same sex parent died when they were very young. I am the oldest of three biological children of my parents and one adopted sibling. I was brought up in the Catholic Church, and early in my life, I developed a love for God and even dreamed of becoming a nun.

I was extremely insecure as a child and did not make friends easily. I never really connected with kids my own age, and my best friends were always older than me. I matured quickly, and beginning at the age of nine, I took on the role of babysitter for my younger siblings as well as the 50 foster children (infants) that my family took in over a period of seven years. I felt like an adult, even as a child.

In high school I began dating a boy who was a couple of years older than me. He lived quite a distance away, so he would come and spend the weekends at my house whenever possible. During this time, my mother started to go with us to the movies or bowling alley nearly every time we went out. She never really dated as a teen because she was raising her two younger brothers. She married my father at the age of 16 to get away from her alcoholic father and her dysfunctional family situation.

When I was 15, my boyfriend and I were away at a church camp and there he tried to have sex with me. When I returned home, I experienced deep betrayal by someone very close to me which sent me spiraling into a deep depression. I rejected God and completely turned my back on him, denying that he even existed. I struggled for the next couple of years with deep depression and attempts at suicide. I graduated from high school, my parents divorced, and I went to college in another part of the state. There, I experienced sexual abuse from three different older men and further rejected any notion that God could exist. I thought what I knew as a child was just a lie and a fairytale – there was no God! I actively rejected the existence of God, telling people who believed that they were weak and deceived.

Responses to AFTAH questions cast doubt on UPS talking points denying cut-off of Scouts

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear Readers,

Following our initial report on United Parcel Service’s (UPS) shift in its pro-“gay” charitable giving approach to mandate that all UPS Foundation grantees — including the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) — ban “discrimination” based on “sexual orientation,” many of you called UPS to complain. Unfortunately, UPS’ responses to your calls tended to obfuscate the basic story: that the Boy Scouts, which received $150,000 from UPS Foundation in 2012, will no longer be eligible to receive future UPS gifts due to the BSA’s longstanding policy of not allowing (openly) homosexual members or scoutmasters.

This de facto UPS cut-off of future funding for the Scouts was precisely the lobbying goal of pro-homosexual activists like Zach Wahls, but a UPS staffer denied to AFTAH that the company was pressured into cutting off the Scouts’ funding.

Several AFTAH readers e-mailed to notify us of UPS’ dubious claim that the corporation is still funding the Boy Scouts, or at least had not cut them off — an obvious technicality, in our view, because under the new policy UPS funds can only flow to the BSA if the Scouts cave in by adopting a pro-homosexual “nondiscrimation” policy.

UPS spokesmen also asserted that there were other branches of the Scouts — or individual, more liberal local councils — that still could receive UPS funding by “checking off” the “sexual orientation nondiscrimination” box, as our friend Linda Harvey of Mission America was told. This evidently is not the case, per the Scouts’ responses to questions 2 and 3 below.

Here are the Boy Scouts of America’s responses to our e-mail questions:

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Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH):  1) Does the BSA perceive this as UPS dropping its annual funding of the Scouts [$150,000 in 2012, according to UPS]?

Boy Scouts of America (BSA):  It is our understanding that this policy will prevent future funding of Scouting.

AFTAH:  2) Does the BSA allow individual troops to put forward “sexual orientation” nondiscrimination policies, so as to be eligible to receive funding from companies like UPS and Intel?

Boy Scouts:  No.  The BSA has one policy.

Read the rest of this article »

Is UPS encouraging local Scout troops to undermine national policy against homosexuality?

We at AFTAH found this this report by Mission America’s Linda Harvey about her conversation with UPS (United Parcel Service) very eye-opening. After our initial report on UPS “dropping” the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through its new, more stringent pro-homosexual charitable giving policy, several of our readers wrote to inform us that UPS is telling people that it is NOT dropping the Scouts. I called UPS today and a staffer reiterated some of the same points as Ruiz’s below. And we are seeking clarifications from the BSA on UPS’ claims, which we will pass on to you. You can call the UPS Foundation at 404-828-6374 and the Scouts at 972-580-2000. For additional contact info for UPS and the Scouts, go HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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Here is Harvey’s recollection of the conversation:

I called UPS today ( November 15, 2012) and was immediately told that they had not cut funding to the Boy Scouts, but they would connect me to someone who would explain further. I then talked with Joe Ruiz, a manager in the UPS Foundation.

Ruiz said no, they had not cut funding to the Boy Scouts, that the media reports were inaccurate. What they’ve done is changed their discrimination policy and if prospective grantees don’t “check the box” stating that they have a policy prohibiting discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity, they would not be eligible.

So I responded that, essentially, UPS has indeed cut funding to the Boy Scouts. Not if they would “check the box,” he said. (It was like talking to a wall). Then, he told me his understanding is that some of the individual Boy Scout groups around the country had indicated they would “check the box,” and so would be eligible. I said, do you mean they are going against the national organization? Well, that would be up to each of them, he said.

Read the rest of this article »